US drilling rig count climbs 11 units to 1,984

US oil and gas drilling activity this week increased by 11 units to 1,984 total rigs working. The rig count for the week ended Mar. 16 was up by 264 rigs from the comparable period a year ago, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Land drilling operations were up 6 units this week to 1,920 rigs working. There were 43 rigs drilling offshore—all of which were drilling in the Gulf of Mexico—an increase of 2 rigs from the previous week. Rigs drilling in inland waters totaled 21, up 3 units from last week (OGJ Online, Mar. 9, 2012).

Of the US rigs working, rigs drilling for oil made a 21-unit jump from a week ago to reach 1,317 rigs. Rigs targeting for gas for the week ended Mar. 16 fell another 7 rigs to reach 663 units working. There were 4 rotary rigs unclassified, down 3 units from the previous week.

Baker Hughes reported 228 rigs doing directional drilling, an increase of 16 units from a week ago. Horizontal drilling increased by 16 rigs to a total of 1,180 units working.

Of the top producing states, Oklahoma gained 12 units to reach 207 rigs working. Colorado was up 4 units to 67. North Dakota and Alaska gained 1 rig each to counts of 197 and 7, respectively. Five states’ rig counts went unchanged this week: Pennsylvania, 101; New Mexico, 81; California, 44; West Virginia, 28; and Ohio, 10, which is a state being introduced to OGJ’s list of top producing states this week. Wyoming, meanwhile, was down 1 rig to 44 units and Arkansas was down 2 rigs to 27 units working. Texas’ rig count, at 926 this week, was down 3 units, which Louisiana, at 131, was down 6 rigs from a week ago.

Canada’s rig count declined another 138 units from a week ago, reaching 517. This is down 69 units from the same period a year ago.